adoption friends, tractor & cute baby - oh my!

Leah and I both adopted Ethiopian babies through the same agency and live in the Phoenix area and met in person a few weeks ago at my house. Last night we went to her 30th b-day bash about 1 1/2 hours away. We had a fun time at her dad's house with a comedic murder mystery dinner. You can see below that there were some actors that barged through their door and started the night out. Javier was taken by surprise when the nerdy guy was at the door going crazy hugging people like he was at his class reunion- and Javier was thinking, "Who is that goof?" Then they passed out roles and hats to different people to get the guests involved in the action. We laughed a lot and the food was great too. Javier and I enjoyed dressing up and having a date night out too. Happy soon to be b-day Leah!

All of our kids together (Jeremiah was sleeping) a few weeks ago at our house.

Leah and me - I am exactly 3 years older - we share the same b-day My hunky husband has lost more than 15 pounds doing the biggest loser competition at work!The nerd that startled Javier :)This is what we woke up to this morning after a late night out. The kids ran out and sat there like statues for a couple of hours watching the action.You can see the kids - remember it was about 6:30 am and so that is why Jo Jo still has her morning afro:).We feel blessed because we got a great tax refund (thanks to all our kids/adoption), a gift from my grandmother who passed away in December and a bonus from Javi's work. We had a set budget and nothing was working out in our budget so we almost gave up. Then some friends recommended a company that actually many people from our church have used. The owner is a Christian man w/ 7 kids and homeschools, so we hit it off with a lot in common and his bid was within our budget. The pool should take about 5 weeks to build. Here is the big hole.

Here is my chub-a-bub - cute little thing. 4 months old and he is THE BEST BABY and seriously has never had a crying fit - ever. Yes he cries (rarely), but it is more like a whimper or complaint - never screaming crying. He flashed me the peace sign the other day - it was too funny. Oh and he got his 2 bottom teeth already!